USDA Looking To Help Address Port Slowdowns

The White House and USDA are trying to ease shipping container shortages and other pandemic-related supply chain bottlenecks that are squeezing consumers, producers, and retailers and driving up prices. Last week, President Biden announced that the Port of Los Angeles will start operating 24/7 to help clear bottlenecks that extend between China to the U.S., hampering farm and other imports and exports. Secretary Tom Vilsack said the USDA is also working on the problem.

“We have been in contact with the Maritime Commission, as you know. It’s an independent federal regulatory agency, so there’s a limited capacity that we have to basically force them to do things. But we’ve strongly encouraged them to do what they can to break up the congestion and to deal with the issue of empty containers.”

Farm country has expressed frustration for months that many of these containers, once they are unloaded in the U.S, they are not being refilled with American farm commodities for export, but simply return to China empty. Vilsack said USDA is spending money to reverse that trend.

“Most recently, we identified money within CCC to be able to be used, as we determine what we can do, whether it’s pallets, whether it’s workers, whether it’s incentives to be filled with agricultural products…resources that can potentially be used, to provide some help and assistance—that’s our intent—about $500 million is available now.” 

Trucker and warehouse worker shortages have further complicated problems with the supply chain. The American Farm Bureau Federation wrote the Administration in January to complain about “supply chain dysfunction” and back an ongoing federal probe of shippers who claim they’re doing their best under extreme conditions.

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